


After Destruction

by KainichivonDiamond



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Destroy Ending, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-28
Updated: 2014-10-28
Packaged: 2018-02-22 23:25:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2525561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KainichivonDiamond/pseuds/KainichivonDiamond
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What happens after the Reapers have been destroyed and the Citadel has crashed?</p>
            </blockquote>





	After Destruction

The pain was blinding the first time she woke up. Her shoulder had been dislocated, she was sure, and her mouth was filled with the taste of blood. When she inhaled, a cough shook her so violently that she surged back against the chunk of rubble she was pressed against and a silent scream burned her throat. Her body instinctively tried to curl up only to find her right leg trapped under something heavy. She couldn't open her eyes to look.

Slowly she inched her hand up to her face and felt over her cheek. The flesh was wet and sticky and she hissed when she found a cut under her eye. But she moved her fingers until she found the hard metal clipped to her ear that was her communicator. She pressed the button on it only to hear silence.

"Is anyone th-there?" she spoke weakly before coughing again. "Respond." She squinted her eyes, but everything was out of focus. The optic upgrades Cerberus gave her must be messing up. "This...is Commander...Shepard." She managed before a pain shot through her head and she grunted. Her hand fell from her communicator to rest on the ground.

Come back alive. It'd be an awfully empty galaxy without you.

She felt the heat building in her eyes and her fingers scraped against the ground as she clenched a fist. It wasn't going to end here. She didn't go through all of this to die in a pile of rubble, alone and pathetic. She was Commander Cynth Shepard, damn it.

And when this is all over, I'll be waiting for you.

She took a deep breath as the heat of the tears pooled on one side of her nose and went over her temple on the other side of her face. "...help me..." she said weakly before letting the pain drag her back into the black oblivion of unconsciousness.

\------

The next time she woke up, the pain was still there, but numbed somewhat. That was weird. Was she in shock?

Then the ground beneath her rocked and she realized that she was being moved. She became aware of the straps across her legs and chest. A part of her panicked at that, but there was no strength in her to fight it, so she just groaned and let her head loll to the side. Above her she heard a man's voice curse and then say her name. A light pressure on her uninjured shoulder.

There was a female voice saying something she couldn't make out and then the hand was gone. The two were talking to each other and she felt the ground rock again. They must be on a shuttle or something. A wave of warmth washed over her and the pain lessened enough to make her body relax against the board she was strapped to. Medigel.

"Commander? Can you hear me?" the man was speaking again. A gloved hand slipped into hers, the man's she assumed. "Can you squeeze my hand?" When she managed she squeeze it lightly, the hand squeezed back. "We're almost to the hospital they set up, Commander. Just hang on a bit longer."

"Mmm..." she tried to speak but it felt like her tongue was swollen in her mouth. "Crr...ew..." she managed to get out, squeezing his hand a bit tighter. Her crew. She needed to know they made it. Needed to know they were okay. Please, give her that much.

There was more talking above her. She was beginning to feel lightheaded and her mind was going fuzzy. The woman said something about a quarian admiral. Tali. So she was okay.

"Her and that turian were combing the wreckage two days ago." The woman said. Garrus. Thank god. "The whole lot of them have been here since we received your message, Commander. Refused to leave till we found you alive."

The whole lot. Did that mean they all made it? After Thane, Mordin, Legion...Kaidan, Pressley...Anderson...She didn't want to think about waking up to having lost even more. But Tali had made it, and Garrus...If anything, at least she had that.

I'll be waiting for you.

She smiled and then the world was gone again.

\---------

Everything smelled of antiseptic.

That was her first thought when she reawaked. She wasn't strapped to a board this time, but in a bed. She slowly opened her eyes, blinking rapidly as her eyes adjusted to the low lighting in the room. They'd gotten her optics fixed at least. Her left arm had a splint from wrist to elbow and rested against her chest in a sling. Her shoulder had been reset. An IV was taped on the back of her right hand and to the side she could see a monitor displaying her heart rate. She could feel the itch of gauze taped to her left cheek.

It was night outside of the window to her left, though the blinds were shut so she couldn't see anything beyond the fact that it was dark. How long had she been out? She started to look for a button to call a doctor or nurse or something.

"Shepard?" a voice came from the right of her and when she turned her head, there he was.

He wasn't wearing his armor, but the casual clothes he'd worn on their shore leave to the Citadel a million years ago. There was a thickness to his right arm that suggested it was bandaged or had a cast beneath the sleeve. In his other hand was a large bottle that looked suspiciously like wine. For a moment they just stared at each other, him in the doorway and her in her bed.

"They still paying you good enough to afford the good stuff?" she asked, smiling at him. "Cause after the week I've had, I could use the good stuff."

Garrus looked down at the bottle and gave a small nod of approval. "I thought you would. Was hoping I'd have time to grab it before you woke up. Joker told me you humans find waking up to your lovers very romantic." He stepped over and let the bottle drop to the mattress next to her covered legs. "But of course you have to shoot my plans right in the foot." Then he was kissing her and she didn't care about anything.

She lifted the hand with the IV to touch his face, squeezing her eyes shut as hot tears ran down her face, catching in the gauze on her cheek. "It's over." Her voice broke a bit as she said it, but she smiled all the same. "We won."

"We won." He touched his forehead to hers and took her face in his hands. "But I thought I told you to stop scaring me like that?"

Her hand went to rest on his chest and she closed her eyes, enjoying having him so close. "I love you. I love you so much, Garrus." She opened her eyes and met his gaze. "Is the rest of the crew okay?"

"EDI's body got fried, being that close to the pulse. But she had backups and is back on the ship only. Joker's trying to convince Tali to build her a new body." He shifted, moving the bottle to sit next to her legs. He took her hand in his, holding it between them. "Ashley got shot but is back in business. Everyone else got away with bruises." He looked up from their hands and nodded his head at her. "We all made it."

"All but Anderson." She leaned back and let her eyes close. "It's so...god, it's so damn surreal. Like I keep waiting for someone to go 'just kidding' and we'll be under attack again."

Garrus lifted a hand to touch her cheek without the gauze. "It's been a long three years, Shepard. But it's over. We beat them, all thanks to you." He looked down and let his hand go down to rest on her hip. "...you had me worried, though. Didn't know if saving the galaxy was gonna be worth it if I didn't have you here with me to deal with the fame."

Cynth laughed lightly at that and shook her head. "Well, my boyfriend made me promise to come back alive. And I just hate to disappoint him." She reached up to touch his cheek again, smile widening when their eyes met again.

"...after we got that transmission..." he admitted quietly, eyes searching hers, "I was...the thought that you were alive in that rubble somewhere and we might not find you in time..."

She brushed her thumb over his jowl. "I knew you'd find me. I kept hearing your voice...remembering that you were out there, waiting for me. Besides..." she smiled and leaned up to kiss him softly, "I'm still curious what a half-human, half-turian baby is going to look like."

Garrus' eyes seemed to light up and he shifted a bit as he sat back. "So you...you still want to?" he moved his hand to stroke her hip lightly, watching her face. "Part of me was a little...worried you may have agreed to a few things due to the whole 'could die at any moment' situation we were in." he gave the closest thing to a grin turians could give and gave her hip a light squeeze. "Guess this means I should start making arrangements for a wedding."

Cynth laughed and leaned back, lifting a hand to push her bangs out of her eyes. Thankfully she didn't seem to have lost much of it through everything. "I suppose a small, simple thing would be too much to ask for." She shook her head. "Not much planning. Tali as my maid of honor...think they'd let us do it on the deck of the Normandy?"


End file.
